Joe Lackovich currently serves as Chief of the Program Planning Office of the Launch Services Program at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. In this position he is responsible for managing future missions' advanced planning, programmatic integration, knowledge management, and Program Outreach.

Lackovich has been with NASA since 1968, when he served as Systems Engineer, Mechanical, Fluids and Propulsion Systems on the Apollo and Spacelab Programs. After six years as Lead Systems Engineer in Experiment Mechanical Systems, he subsequently served as Chief of the Experiment Mechanical Systems Section, Chief of the Mechanical and Fluid Systems Branch, and Chief of the Experiment Engineering Division. In 1998, Lackovich was named Chief Engineer of International Space Station and Shuttle Payloads, and in 2000 he was named Deputy Director of KSC's ELV program.

He was an STS-1 20th Anniversary Honoree in 2001 and received NASA's prestigious Silver Snoopy Award in 1985.

Lackovich holds a bachelor of science degree in aeronautics from Parks College of St. Louis University, and has done extensive graduate-level work in systems management at the Florida Institute of Technology. He and his wife, Liz, have two children, a son and a daughter.